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Writer's pictureRaymond Mudford - Vice President, Grey Power, Hamilton
Feb 233 min read

Hamilton proposed Average Rates Increase from $2,862 to $6,000 in just 5 Years time.



The news on Hamilton rates just keeps getting worse. It appears the latest proposal is that rates now rise by 19.9% next year and then 15% for each year for the next four years (1 Ke-Xin LI, 22nd Feb 2024, Waikato Times). A recent article indicates the average rate bill in Hamilton is $2862 (which seems very low), already above the average NZ resident rate bill and also higher than Auckland (2Michael Daly, Feb 16th 2024, Stuff). Hamiltonians must then also add regional council rates, which also appear to be some of the highest regional rates in the country based upon the nation’s averages (3Scoop, NZ Taxpayers Union 8th Feb, 2024). On top of this Hamilton city has debts of the better part of one billion dollars and our credit outlook is not positive (4 Stephan Ward, 28th Sept 2023, Waikato Times).

               

A 19.9% rate increase followed by 4 further years of over 15%, represents a compounded rate bill increase for the average rate of over 109%. Average rates will rise from $2862 to approx. $6000, or an increase of over $3100.


Year 1

2

3

4

5

AVG Rate

19.9%

15.0%

15.0%

15.0%

15.0%

$2,862

$3,431.54

$3,946.27

$4,38.21

$5,218.94

$6,001.78











Total Increase

$3,139.78





% Increase

109.71

For those living in Hamilton, already a relatively low average household income city with higher-than-average rates (5Anon, retrieved 22 Feb 2024, Infometrics), the proposal for a rise in average rates to $6000 in 5 years is devastating. Now if you are a high paid official or somehow lucky enough to be on one, two, or more, boards on council-controlled organizations, or perhaps having some other well-paid role such as a consultant or commissioner, a rates rise of over $3100 may not seem like much. However, if you are a pensioner, rates of $6000 represents almost a quarter of your entire annual pension. Are you expecting an increase in pensions over the next 5 years of over 109%? If you are lucky enough to get a 3% increase, then the Hamilton rates rise will represent 80% of your pension increase by itself! I hope power, food, water bills (next council proposal), transport, medical bills etc do not increase for the next five years…


What does this proposal tell us? It would appear that some councillors (on over $70,000 for a part time job) view ratepayers as a bottomless pit of money. It is other people’s money after all. Our members are starting to question whether Hamilton City Council has a revenue problem, as some in the council have been proclaiming to us for years, or whether it is actually a spending problem? This is especially true when Hamilton’s bill for consultants is apparently three times that of Auckland’s (1), despite the fact that we are less than 15% of its population?


This is not just a Hamilton question, increasingly ratepayers around the country are asking why the price of a pedestrian crossing is almost half a million dollars, or why it costs the price of a house ($700,000) to move a bus stop? (6Stacey Rangitonga, 7th Dec 2023, Waikato Times) or why cycleways can cost tens of thousands of dollars per metre? Not to mention why it costs hundreds of millions for rail and other major infrastructure projects without a shovel being put in the ground?


Why would a walk bridge price now be almost $30 million when the peer reviewed original proposal was for less than $4m? Why is it that a bridge being built today is almost $160 million (not the final price) while the last bridge in that city cost $3.4m including approaching roads (7Wikipedia Retrieved 22nd Feb 2024). When adjusted for the average inflation rate that makes today’s price for that bridge roughly $27 million? (8 Inflation Calculator, Retrieved 22nd Feb 2024, Inflationtool.com) Why is it after all our advances in technology is a bridge almost 6 times more expensive to build today?


What is going on? Why are NZ’s infrastructure costs some of the highest in the world? How have we come so far from our number eight wire traditions where we built things with ingenuity and our roads and infrastructure lasted more than a few years without the need for major repair and massive maintenance costs? Certainly, Hamilton pensioners cannot afford these type of rates proposals. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered.


It is time for an inquiry? Is it time to delve beneath the lid?


 

2 Michael Daly, Feb 16th 2024, Stuff, “By the Numbers: Rising Rates Adds More Pain”, https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350178738/numbers-rising-rates-adds-more-pain

 

 

4 Stephan Ward, 28th Sept 2023, Waikato Times, Storm Clouds over City Finances as S&P notes ‘Negative’ Outlook, https://www.waikatotimes.co.nz/nz-news/350080326/storm-clouds-over-city-finances-sp-notes-negative-outlook

 

5 Anon, retrieved 22 Feb 2024, Infometrics, Regional Economic Profile: Hamilton City, https://ecoprofile.infometrics.co.nz/Hamilton%20City/StandardOfLiving/Household_Income

 

6Stacey Rangitonga, 7th Dec 2023, Waikato Times, “$700k to Move Sex Shop Bus Stop”, https://www.waikatotimes.co.nz/nz-news/350125753/700k-move-sex-shop-bus-stop

 

 

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Feb 28

Reading all that...my goodness one has to ask why is Hamilton a so much more expensive place to live than anywhere else in NZ and how come the part time councillors get so much more money now than I used to as a full time worker????

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